When you use Windows Media Player to play streaming videos or music on your business computer, you may experience uneven playback. This can happen if you have a slow Internet connection or network congestion occurs. One way to resolve that is to allow the application to download a few seconds of video before beginning to play. Microsoft calls this process buffering. By default, Windows Media Player handles buffering automatically, but you have the option to adjust the number of seconds that Windows Media Player buffers before playing your content.

Launch Windows Media Player and press "Ctrl-M" if you do not see the menu that contains the Windows Media Player "Tools" button.

Click the "Tools" button and then click "Options" to open the Options dialog window.

Click "Performance" and find the Network Buffering section. You will find the "Use Default Buffering (Recommended)" radio button there. Windows Media Player selects this radio button by default. When this radio button is selected, the application manages buffering automatically.

Click the "Buffer" radio button to select it. When you do that, Windows Media Player deselects the "Use Default Buffering (Recommended)" radio button.

Type the number of seconds you'd like the application to buffer a data stream in the "Seconds of Content" text box. The default value is 5, but you can change that to another value if you'd like to increase or decrease the player's buffering time.

Tips

Increase the buffering time if you have a slow Internet connection and your streaming videos or music pause frequently while playing. When you increase the "Seconds of Content" value to 7, for example, Windows Media Player preloads seven seconds of content before beginning playback. This means that your videos or music will not play instantly when you click "Play." If you experience no playback problems, you might try reducing the "Seconds of Content" value if you want playback to begin sooner after you click "Play." You may have to experiment with different values to optimize your playback.

If your business relies on streaming audio or video, you may also wish to upgrade your Internet connection.

About the Author

After majoring in physics, Kevin Lee began writing professionally in 1989 when, as a software developer, he also created technical articles for the Johnson Space Center. Today this urban Texas cowboy continues to crank out high-quality software as well as non-technical articles covering a multitude of diverse topics ranging from gaming to current affairs.